Sports-related concussions have skyrocketed in the U.S. with over 3.8 million reported each year. The timely detection of a concussion is vital because athletes who return to action too soon are vulnerable to repeat injuries. The damage can lurk inside, later surfacing as memory loss, a change in personality, depression and the early onset of dementia. Even in the absence of a concussion, multiple impacts might alert a coach to focus on a specific athlete's technique.
Further, federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that nearly a quarter-million youths 19 and under visited the emergency room for sports- and recreation-related concussions in 2009. Medical experts suspect a far greater number did not seek medical attention or did not receive a diagnosis. It is recognised that early detection of concussions could drastically reduce injuries, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, since most injuries occur because treatment is delayed. Further, more than 75 percent of concussions go undiagnosed, eventually contributing to over 30 percent of head trauma deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Early detection also could cut medical bills and lost productivity.
Contact sports such as football, lacrosse and hockey present significant risks. Although helmets and other protective equipment (e.g. facial protection by visors, cages and/or goggles) used in these sports are protective, players can and do still suffer injuries such as a concussion. Even in the absence of a concussion, multiple impacts might alert a coach to focus on a specific athlete's technique. Current concussive science is of the understanding that even minor head trauma, if undetected, can lead to long-term damage. For example, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease, diagnosed post-mortem in individuals with a history of multiple concussions and other forms of head injury. CTE has been most commonly found in professional athletes participating in American football, ice hockey, professional wrestling and other contact sports who have experienced head trauma, and also in military service personnel exposed to a blast and/or a concussive injury. It is recognised that repeated concussions and injuries less serious than concussions (“sub-concussions”) incurred during the play of contact sports over a long period can result in CTE. Another effect under current research is Second-Impact Syndrome (SIS), which is a condition in which the brain swells rapidly and catastrophically after a person suffers a second concussion before symptoms from an earlier one have subsided. This deadly second blow may occur days, weeks or even minutes after an initial concussion, and even the mildest grade of concussion can lead to SIS. Accordingly, researchers had developed an array of new technology, sensors that fit into helmets, some equipped to transmit impact data to the sideline, in order to help address early detection needed for potential CTE and SIS conditions.
However, although these new devices might suit college and professional teams, the new devices can be too expensive for youth sports and other broader based applications. Accordingly, more important that ever is the need for a widely adopted force detection device that is easily customizable and implementable in a variety of sports and other activities requiring helmet usage and other protective elements, while at the same time providing for one or more advantages such as reusability, easily identifiable once installed, and providing visual and/or audible indication of force impact events after they occur.